Overtoom powers international supply chain with Manhattan Associates

Overtoom, a retailer of office supplies and warehouse and workplace equipment in the Netherlands and a division of the international Manutan Group, has selected Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management solution (WMS) to optimise its domestic and international distribution operations. Manhattan's WMS is currently being implemented at Overtoom's 377,000 square foot distribution centre (DC) in Den Dolder, The Netherlands, which operates as a central European DC serving the Dutch market as well as other markets across Europe.

To optimise the company's domestic and international distribution operations, Overtoom and parent group Manutan jointly sought a new warehouse management solution. Following an extensive selection process, they selected Manhattan Associates' WMS for the group's DCs in France and the Netherlands. The system was initially implemented, very successfully, at Manutan's DC in France. Based on a replication of the deployment model used in the French project, the solution is now being implemented at the group's DC in the Netherlands with some additional configuration to support Overtoom's operations in the Netherlands.

Overtoom and Manutan selected Manhattan Associates for a number of reasons including the user-friendly and flexible nature of the Manhattan WMS. Additionally, the system is a great fit because of its ability to support the DCs' specific operational requirements. Overtoom operates as a 24/7 round-the-clock retailer and aims to ship as many consolidated orders as possible and within 24 hours. Manhattan's WMS makes it possible to efficiently combine orders from different channels before subsequently optimising the despatch process by determining how goods should be delivered to their final destination.

"Our current WMS has reached its capacity in terms of functional capability and is an obstacle to our future business success and to our ability to effectively service our customers," says Jan Piet van Dijk, operations director at Overtoom. "We initially considered implementing a new ERP system, but this offered too little in terms of functionality and flexibility. Therefore we took the 'best of breed' route which gives us the functional strength we need now, offers us key solution components such as Labour Management, which we will likely deploy at some point, and the flexibility to support us as our business and operational requirements evolve over time."

"We are delighted that Overtoom has selected Manhattan Associates to optimise its multichannel strategy and pleased to be welcoming another big name brand to our fast-growing list of clients in the Netherlands," says Pieter Van den Broecke, managing director Central Europe at Manhattan Associates. "The transition to a multichannel supply chain is an interesting challenge and we look forward to supporting Overtoom in reaching its immediate and longer term goals."

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